Tuol Sleng, Museum of Genocide

It is important to visit this profoundly disturbing place if you wish to understand modern Cambodia. It is an experience that brings you close to the darkest depths of mankind's capacity for brutality. The grounds of this former high school are just as they were in 1979 at the end of Cambodia's bloody genocide. During the violent recent history in Cambodia, the two-story compound became one of the most notorious concentration camps, essentially a torture chamber before people were slaughtered in the Killing Fields. It was called S21 by the Khmer Rouge and it was by no means the only facility of this sort in Democratic Kampuchea. S21 was one part of a larger organized killing apparatus. From 1975 until 1979, an estimated 17,000 prisoners were tortured at Tuol Sleng and died, or were executed in the nearby Killing Fields. A great number were actually Khmer Rouge themselves accused of disloyalty by the increasingly paranoid leadership. Many were just ordinary Khmer citizens required to confess to crimes they would never have known to exist.

If you don't come with a guide, you'll certainly want to hire one at the entrance, although you're free to roam the grounds on your own. Local guides often have personal experience of the Khmer Rouge years and are vital sources of oral history. The prison population of Tuol Sleng was carefully cataloged; in fact, the metal neck brace employed for holding subjects' heads in place for the admitting photograph is on display. There are some written accounts in English and paintings made by a survivor called Vann Nath. Vann Nath was saved only because the Khmer Rouge used his talents to create paintings of Pol Pot (in July 2009, he testified against "Duch," the prison director and the first Khmer Rouge cadre put on trial). In addition to his artwork there are also gory photos of the common torture practices in the prison.

Perhaps what is most haunting is the look in the eyes of the newly arrived; one wing of the buildings is dedicated to these very arrival photos. Thousands upon thousands of people staring at you across history -- some terrified, some bewildered. Children and infants did not escape the savagery and the carnage. This sight is overwhelming, so be prepared. The upper galleries contain the roughly constructed cells, the manacles, and the small metal boxes used for defecation that were part of daily life for all inmates before they were taken away and murdered. To the left as you enter is a series of former classrooms used for torture. There are grisly pictures of what the Vietnamese found when they arrived. Victims still chained to the metal beds on which they had been tortured and then murdered before their persecutors made a hasty exit to save their own skins from the invading Vietnamese army. As the trial of the camp commandant, Duch, continues, more information continues to emerge. The horror here is recent, and the depth of suffering truly unfathomable.

Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.

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